6 ms·

The marketplace is getting worse for e-books, not better. Amazon has been pushing the "Kindle Unlimited" subscription model and changed how authors get paid fo

by bduerst 11y ago

The marketplace is getting worse for e-books, not better. Amazon has been pushing the "Kindle Unlimited" subscription model and changed how authors get paid for those consumers, which favors shorter stories. Authors have taken to breaking out a book's chapters and releasing them individually [1] to capitalize on this model. Conversely, this gives them more shelf space in Amazon's recommendations, and because they are the same book, it lowers the signal to noise ratio in the marketplace for finding something relevant to read. [1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013RJDCPU/ref=series_rw_dp_sw http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013RJDCPU/ref=series_rw_dp...

Someone1234 11y ago
One could argue, if one was so inclined, that releasing smaller cheaper books is better for the consumer. Right now, you'll spend $4-11 on a book. A lot of people know within two or three chapters if they like the book, and will make a decision on finishing it. If you're buying books in parts, that allows the reader to try the book at a smaller financial risk. For example you can find out if you'll like the book or not for $1 rather than $6. Even the example you linked, it would have cost me $5 previously to try the author/book out, but now only costs me $1. That's a win for me (PS - and I might try out that book as it sounds pretty interesting as a SciFi topic). > Conversely, this gives them more shelf space in Amazon's recommendations, and because they are the same book, it lowers the signal to noise ratio in the marketplace for finding something relevant to read. But is this an inherent problem with the books/authors themselves, or Amazon's site? If Amazon grouped all of the chapters or parts into a single "volume" then it both wouldn't negatively impact recommendations or flood the genre list with duplicates.
- bduerst 11y ago
  True, and it would be an argument if you couldn't preview the first few chapters of a kindle book already. The problem lay with Amazon, not the authors. The authors are rational actors reacting to the changes that Amazon made to their marketplace. By trying to push their subscription model, Amazon is inadvertently reducing the quality of their ebook marketplace. And man, if you're a SciFi fan, you should read Hugh Howley's Wool book too.
6502nerdface 11y ago
> Authors have taken to breaking out a book's chapters and releasing them individually [1] to capitalize on this model. This is exactly how many classic novels and other long works of literature were originally published in the Victorian and Edwardian periods [1]. For genres like SF and Fantasy, this remained a common model well into the twentieth century. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with a modern return to serialization of longer works; it's actually kind of neat -- greater optionality for the reader. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_%28literature%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_%28literature%29
- bduerst 11y ago
  Yep, and there is nothing wrong with serialization today. If you're interested, I would even recommend reading the Worm web serial. The point I was making was that the ebook marketplace on Amazon is getting worse because they are incentivizing serialization without updating their search or recommendation engine to account for it.
- teacup50 11y ago
  Science Fiction came into its own once we moved past serialization; there's simply more value in a complete, cohesive, edited book. Serialization was simple an industry constraint, not an actual desirable state of being.
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  And serialization lead to many 'classic' 19th century novels being the dreary slow repetitive reads that they are. When an author releases a whole book they can read the whole thing back to themselves first and streamline it so that it flows as a whole. It's like the difference between a TV soap and films.
ghaff 11y ago
>Amazon has been pushing the "Kindle Unlimited" subscription model and changed how authors get paid for those consumers, which favors shorter stories. A couple of points. People seem to be shifting in general, George R. R. Martin novels notwithstanding, to favoring shorter content. My specific experience is more in the marketing literature and research reports space but there we've seen a clear shift toward shorter and more visual content being preferred. And even in the technical book space, there seem to be a lot more short books out there. I remember reading the observation quite a few years ago now that the publishing industry was effectively built around a model where you could have a magazine article or a 300+ page book but you couldn't really do something in between. I suspect that even when e-books made a 100-page book economically viable, a lot of people including consumers still thought in terms of print. This seems to be starting to change.
- petra 11y ago
  >> My specific experience is more in the marketing literature ... there we've seen a clear shift toward shorter and more visual content being preferred. Could you please give some example of such books?
  - ghaff 11y ago
    By "literature" I was referring to marketing materials that I'm involved in creating or having created. I don't have specific public metrics that I can point to, but I work with a lot of people both inside and outside my company who track downloads, pageviews, etc. of a lot of different asset types. (As well as just talking to customers and others who use the materials.) What we see, for example, is survey results that get delivered essentially as a presentation rather than as a report with a lot of text. There also seems to be a general preference for shorter written pieces with more sidebars, graphics, etc. In terms of technical books, as I mentioned separately, just look at O'Reilly's catalog. There are still some big tomes but also a lot of much shorter books.
shoyer 11y ago
Kindle Unlimited no longer works this way. Amazon now distributes payments among authors in proportion to the number of pages that are read: http://mashable.com/2015/06/22/amazon-kindle-unlimited-author-payment/ http://mashable.com/2015/06/22/amazon-kindle-unlimited-autho...
- hga 11y ago
  Indeed; one author I'm following has stopped selling one or more of his titles outside of the Amazon ecosystem because this feature's new pricing is earning him more money than regular, entire book sales.
CurtMonash 11y ago
That is misleading at best. First, as of July, Amazon started paying by pages read, not by "books of which at least 10% was read". Authors/publishers now no longer even get statements saying how many borrows your book got; rather, they list page reads. Payout right now is about half a cent per page, for fairly small pages, with some potential bonuses on top of that. Second, that's where the money is now for independent authors, much more than in sales. Based on figures I've seen, in a mix of public and confidential, I'd guess that independent authors are getting paid, just for borrows, about as much as conventionally published authors do for $1 billion of annual book sales, give or take a factor of 2.

by bduerst 11y ago

Someone1234 11y ago

One could argue, if one was so inclined, that releasing smaller cheaper books is better for the consumer. Right now, you'll spend $4-11 on a book. A lot of people know within two or three chapters if they like the book, and will make a decision on finishing it. If you're buying books in parts, that allows the reader to try the book at a smaller financial risk. For example you can find out if you'll like the book or not for $1 rather than $6. Even the example you linked, it would have cost me $5 previously to try the author/book out, but now only costs me $1. That's a win for me (PS - and I might try out that book as it sounds pretty interesting as a SciFi topic). > Conversely, this gives them more shelf space in Amazon's recommendations, and because they are the same book, it lowers the signal to noise ratio in the marketplace for finding something relevant to read. But is this an inherent problem with the books/authors themselves, or Amazon's site? If Amazon grouped all of the chapters or parts into a single "volume" then it both wouldn't negatively impact recommendations or flood the genre list with duplicates.

bduerst 11y ago
True, and it would be an argument if you couldn't preview the first few chapters of a kindle book already. The problem lay with Amazon, not the authors. The authors are rational actors reacting to the changes that Amazon made to their marketplace. By trying to push their subscription model, Amazon is inadvertently reducing the quality of their ebook marketplace. And man, if you're a SciFi fan, you should read Hugh Howley's Wool book too.

6502nerdface 11y ago

> Authors have taken to breaking out a book's chapters and releasing them individually [1] to capitalize on this model. This is exactly how many classic novels and other long works of literature were originally published in the Victorian and Edwardian periods [1]. For genres like SF and Fantasy, this remained a common model well into the twentieth century. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with a modern return to serialization of longer works; it's actually kind of neat -- greater optionality for the reader. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_%28literature%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_%28literature%29

bduerst 11y ago
Yep, and there is nothing wrong with serialization today. If you're interested, I would even recommend reading the Worm web serial. The point I was making was that the ebook marketplace on Amazon is getting worse because they are incentivizing serialization without updating their search or recommendation engine to account for it.
teacup50 11y ago
Science Fiction came into its own once we moved past serialization; there's simply more value in a complete, cohesive, edited book. Serialization was simple an industry constraint, not an actual desirable state of being.
JupiterMoon 11y ago
And serialization lead to many 'classic' 19th century novels being the dreary slow repetitive reads that they are. When an author releases a whole book they can read the whole thing back to themselves first and streamline it so that it flows as a whole. It's like the difference between a TV soap and films.

ghaff 11y ago

>Amazon has been pushing the "Kindle Unlimited" subscription model and changed how authors get paid for those consumers, which favors shorter stories. A couple of points. People seem to be shifting in general, George R. R. Martin novels notwithstanding, to favoring shorter content. My specific experience is more in the marketing literature and research reports space but there we've seen a clear shift toward shorter and more visual content being preferred. And even in the technical book space, there seem to be a lot more short books out there. I remember reading the observation quite a few years ago now that the publishing industry was effectively built around a model where you could have a magazine article or a 300+ page book but you couldn't really do something in between. I suspect that even when e-books made a 100-page book economically viable, a lot of people including consumers still thought in terms of print. This seems to be starting to change.

petra 11y ago
>> My specific experience is more in the marketing literature ... there we've seen a clear shift toward shorter and more visual content being preferred. Could you please give some example of such books?
- ghaff 11y ago
  By "literature" I was referring to marketing materials that I'm involved in creating or having created. I don't have specific public metrics that I can point to, but I work with a lot of people both inside and outside my company who track downloads, pageviews, etc. of a lot of different asset types. (As well as just talking to customers and others who use the materials.) What we see, for example, is survey results that get delivered essentially as a presentation rather than as a report with a lot of text. There also seems to be a general preference for shorter written pieces with more sidebars, graphics, etc. In terms of technical books, as I mentioned separately, just look at O'Reilly's catalog. There are still some big tomes but also a lot of much shorter books.

shoyer 11y ago

Kindle Unlimited no longer works this way. Amazon now distributes payments among authors in proportion to the number of pages that are read: http://mashable.com/2015/06/22/amazon-kindle-unlimited-author-payment/ http://mashable.com/2015/06/22/amazon-kindle-unlimited-autho...

hga 11y ago
Indeed; one author I'm following has stopped selling one or more of his titles outside of the Amazon ecosystem because this feature's new pricing is earning him more money than regular, entire book sales.

CurtMonash 11y ago

That is misleading at best. First, as of July, Amazon started paying by pages read, not by "books of which at least 10% was read". Authors/publishers now no longer even get statements saying how many borrows your book got; rather, they list page reads. Payout right now is about half a cent per page, for fairly small pages, with some potential bonuses on top of that. Second, that's where the money is now for independent authors, much more than in sales. Based on figures I've seen, in a mix of public and confidential, I'd guess that independent authors are getting paid, just for borrows, about as much as conventionally published authors do for $1 billion of annual book sales, give or take a factor of 2.